<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>Modern China & Japan</strong></h4><p> Introductory study of the modern history of China and Japan. Examines the dynamic developments of political, social, economic and cultural changes, including relations with the West, from 1800 to the present.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst253/type/blurbs">hst253</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>﻿Approaches to Michigan History</strong></h4><p> Intro to historical methodologies, focusing on Michigan. Native American societies, European settlements, imperial wars and American Revolution, territorial period and statehood, economic development and reform, Civil War, industrialization and urbanization, immigration and race, World Wars and Great Depression, civil rights, suburbanization and decline of auto industry, contemporary Michigan.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst206/type/blurbs">hst206</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> Reform & Search for Order</h4><p> Urban revolution; middle class reforms; response of industry, labor, and public institutions to the progressive era; World War I; the Jazz Age; the stock market crash of 1929; and the Hoover administration.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst325/type/blurbs">hst325</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>The European Enlightenment</strong></h4><p> Known as an “age of reason,” it spanned the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and dismantled religion as the dominant force in European societies. But by no means did the Enlightenment spell the end of belief or superstition. Predominantly through sources from the period, we examine the ideas of several famous individuals (e.g., Descartes, Locke, Pascal, Voltaire), each of whom contributed and reacted to the Enlightenment.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst333/type/blurbs">hst333</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>Inquisitions</strong></h4><p> The Inquisition represents some of the most notorious instances of intolerance and violence produced by religious belief. But our knowledge of this history, however, too often relies on myth. “The Inquisition” was not a single institution; there were several inquisitions, each with its own complex set of circumstances. This course examines Spain’s inquisition as well as other inquisitions in Europe and the Americas. </p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst332/type/blurbs">hst332</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>﻿Modern Germany</strong></h4><p> Survey of German history since 1815, emphasis on 1848-1945. Topics include major German regions, emergence of a modern industrial economy, 1848 liberal revolution, unification, imperial German politics, Weimar Republic, Nazism, and emergence of a united, democratic Germany. Emphasis on struggle between liberalism and authoritarianism in shaping modern Germany as well as major social, economic and cultural developments.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst240/type/blurbs">hst240</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>Medieval World</strong></h4><p> This course explores Western Europe during the Middle Ages (c. 500-1500). The Middle Ages witnessed developments of fundamental significance for contemporary societies: the growth of the most popular religion on the planet (Christianity), the separation of church and state, the establishment of universities, experimentation with scientific procedure, as well as conflict and exchange between Christian and Islamic communities.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst203/type/blurbs">hst203</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> South African History</h4><p> Survey of main themes and problems in recent South African historiography. Early colonial roots of segregation and white supremacy, British rule and mineral revolution, segregation and apartheid, ethnic conflict, constitutional problems, industrialization and urbanization, Afrikaner and black nationalism and contemporary crisis and potential for conflict resolution between the developed and developing worlds.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst360/type/blurbs">hst360</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>Plagues & Peoples</strong></h4><p> Scientific and historical approaches to explore the connections between major epidemics and world history, combining a general overview of the subject with more focused case studies. Study the social, economic, political, cultural, religious, and technological contexts in which epidemics arose, how those contexts shaped responses to them, and the impact of these epidemics on society at large.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst272/type/blurbs">hst272</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> China’s 20th Century Revolution</h4><p> Examines China’s 20th-century revolutionary history, including the Republican Revolution of 1911, the Nationalist Revolution of the 1920s and 1930s, and the Communist Revolution of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, culminating with an analysis of the Communist party’s revolutionary rule, 1949 to the present.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst353/type/blurbs">hst353</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>The Roosevelt Revolution, 1932-45</strong></h4><p> Analysis of the Great Depression, the New Deal, American isolation in 1930s, and American involvement in World War II. Historical perspectives of the New Society which emerged from the Great Depression and World War II.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst326/type/blurbs">hst326</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> <strong>American Legal History I</strong></h4><p> Introductory survey, 1620-1877. Indigenous and colonial law, crime and punishment, religion and the law, creation of the law of slavery, imperial conflicts and the Revolution, the Constitution, the Marshall and Taney courts, abolition and women’s rights, and legal aspects of the Civil War and Reconstruction.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst121/type/blurbs">hst121</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> American Legal History II</h4><p> Introductory survey, 1877-2001. Labor and industrialization in the law, legal education and philosophies, civil rights, the New Deal and the courts, law and the economy, the growth of government and the expansion of presidential power, terrorism and the law.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst122/type/blurbs">hst122</a></span></div>

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Featured Course:</p><h4> Europe in Upheaval, 1914-45</h4><p> Analysis of causes and course of World War I; Russian Revolution and Stalinism; interwar diplomacy, crisis of democracy, and Great Depression; Fascism and Nazism; special focus on causes, course, and impact of World War II.</p></div><div class="lw_blurbs_tags" style="display:none;"><span class="lw_item_tags"><a href="/live/tags/hst238/type/blurbs">hst238</a></span></div>

Featured Course:

Modern China & Japan

Introductory study of the modern history of China and Japan. Examines the dynamic developments of political, social, economic and cultural changes, including relations with the West, from 1800 to the present.

<div class="lw_blurbs_body"><p> Famous lines: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”</p><p style="text-align: right;"> <strong>— Confucius (d. 479 B.C.E.)</strong></p></div>

Famous lines: “Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

— St. James, the Greater (d. 44 C.E.)

Learn why History is one of the most popular majors across the country, preparing you for a rapidly changing world.

Recent graduates report working in a wide range of fields including business management, the non-profit sector, records management, and teaching. Our students also have pursued graduate study in medicine, law, library science, and, of course, history.

Alma’s history program offers both a major and a minor, including courses on Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Subject matter spans an extensive range of time periods and cultures, addressing special topics like the history of public health, religion, immigration and ethnicity, foreign policy, the American Constitution and law.

Reanna Averill, a double major in history and anthropology, traveled to South Korea in June to begin her study abroad at Ehwa Women’s University. She is maintaining a blog where you can find out about what her experiences have been like.